The festival drew thousands of visitors to the navy base in Simon's Town, where South Africa's submarines and maritime warfare skills were showcased to the public this weekend.
But behind the pomp and ceremony lurked an embarrassing case of alleged shoplifting at a mall about 10km from the base.
Moipone Ndabambi, 42, wife of Admiral Ralph Ndabambi, 55, was arrested on March 5 as she was leaving a Foschini store at Longbeach Mall in Noordhoek.
Admiral Ndabambi, who was South Africa's military attaché in China until 2009, is the director of naval reserves at the base.
He attended a media briefing by top brass on Thursday in Simon's Town on the state of the navy and its readiness to combat piracy off the African coast.
Ten days before, his wife had been stopped by a security guard as she was leaving the store. Items of clothing - mostly under garments worth about R1500 - were allegedly discovered in her bag.
Ndabambi was spared a night in jail because she was with three children when arrested. Usually police arrange for a family member to collect children, but the admiral was not available.
Ndabambi was released after being warned to appear in court the next day. She appeared in the Simon's Town Magistrate's Court again on Wednesday this week and was not asked to plead. The case was postponed to April 13.
Admiral Ndabambi declined to comment when the Sunday Times contacted his office at the naval base. His secretary, who relayed questions to the admiral, said they should be answered by the navy.
Navy spokesman Commander Prince Tshabalala said the navy did not consider it necessary to comment on a private matter.
This is not the couple's first brush with the law. Admiral Nda-bambi was charged with assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm after an alleged shopping-rage incident at a Chinese-owned shop in Fish Hoek in June 2010.
He reportedly got into an argument with the shopkeeper and was alleged to have hit the woman. Police this week confirmed that the charge was withdrawn in February 2011 after the complainant failed to appear in court.
This week, the co-owner of the Happy R5 Store, speaking in broken English, said she considered the matter "closed" and asked the newspaper not to publish her identity.
Asked why she decided not to press charges, she shrugged her shoulders and said she struggled to speak English and had decided to let bygones be bygones.
Between serving customers, she demonstrated how a customer had punched her in the face. "We started to argue when he told other customers I was selling rubbish," she said.
A customer hit her son in the face with a heater, she said.
The shopkeeper and her son laid a complaint at the Fish Hoek police station. Admiral Ndabambi laid a counter charge of assault, claiming the shopkeeper had poked him in his eyes with her finger.
During the Ndabambis' stay in China, the couple visited Tibet with a group of military attachés from around the world.
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